LONGLIST ANNOUNCED FOR JOHN MOORES PAINTING PRIZE 2018
60 artworks to be exhibited as the Prize celebrates its 60th year
The Walker Art Gallery has announced the 60 artists whose paintings will feature in the John Moores Painting Prize 2018 exhibition, marking 60 years of the UK’s longest-established painting prize. The free exhibition will be held at the Walker from 14 July to 18 November, showing as part of Liverpool Biennial 2018.
Paintings were selected from more than 2,700 entries by an esteemed panel of jurors. This year’s jurors include artists Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, Lubaina Himid MBE, Bruce McLean and Liu Xiaodong, and curator Jenni Lomax. The names of the artists remain anonymous throughout the judging process.
From Amazon parcel collection lockers to Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, subjects depicted within the selected paintings are wide-ranging. Vibrant abstracts will be exhibited alongside highly finished, meticulously detailed works; united in their mutual use of paint as a medium.
Some of this year’s artists have experimented with an inventive range of materials. Aluminium, silk, cardboard and even compostable food recycling bags are utilised in place of conventional canvases. Meanwhile, found objects, coins and felt pen are among the materials used in addition to paint.
Sandra Penketh, Director of Art Galleries at National Museums Liverpool, said: “The 2018 exhibition will be a particularly significant one. For 60 years, the Prize has enabled the Walker to showcase and acquire work by a truly remarkable selection of contemporary artists, and this year will be no exception.
“Self taught artists, art tutors, recent graduates and established artists are all represented, together providing a fascinating insight into what’s inspiring artists in the UK right now. Visitors will no doubt recognise the names of some talented past exhibitors, as well as discovering a host of exciting new names.”
Reflecting on the judging process, juror Jenni Lomax said: “After the nerve-wracking process of making the first cut from hundreds of digital images comes the surprise of seeing the paintings in their reality. Scale, texture, mark and material, all elusive on-screen, become evident in the next stage of selection.
“Our lively and sometimes heated discussions while judging led to a final group of works that show dexterity, humour, passion and a strong physical sense of having been made.”
The jury will select a final shortlist of five paintings, from which the £25,000 first prizewinning work will be chosen and four additional prizes of £2,500 will be awarded. Visitors to the exhibition will also be invited to vote for their favourite painting to win the popular Visitors’ Choice Award, sponsored by Rathbones. The winning artist will receive £2,018.
In celebration of the Prize’s 60th anniversary year, an additional award will be offered to the first prize winner – a three month fellowship at Liverpool John Moores University together with an in-focus solo display at the Walker Art Gallery in 2019.
The artists selected to exhibit paintings in the John Moore Painting Prize 2018 are:
Ahmed, Miraj Smile
Bailey, Liz
Baker, Richard
Bakst, Marta
Barker, Andy
Bingham, James Shere
Blane, Frances Aviva Mother
Bruton, Jo
Busuttil, Carla
Cadwallader, Gareth Milk
Clark, Jake
Clarke, Pete
Crosby, Billy
Davies, Lara
Down, Tom ‘hollow’
Elton, Liz
Fears, Alan
Fineman, Emma Questions of Silence
Franklin, Charlie Flatland
Gasson, Clare Note-taking September 2016
Gerrard, Jahan Aerial
Hain, Alex
Hallum, Jacqui King and Queen of Wands
Hogarth, Delphine French Summer
Holloway, Leo Untitled
Homerston, Ian Untitled
Howse, Tom
Jeong, Seungjo Interface L3
Johnson, Ben The Space Between Revisited
Johnson, Nicholas William The Intolerable Strangeness of Vegetable Consciousness (Sunspilt II)
Kiki, John
Krishanu, Matthew Mission School
Kulkarni, Nicholas Misdirection
Lancaster, Laura Untitled
Lawrence, Gary Kos Town Paradise Hotel Front Terrace
Lock, David
Maple, Kathryn Alone in the Desert
Martin, Graham Red Road
Matsuzaki, Tomoya Untitled (Willow)
Matthews, Peter Suspended Aura
Nahaul, Cara
Ní Mhaonaigh, Sinéad Monument
Noga, Laurence Deep Blue Filtered Silver
Norris, Olivia
O’Rourke, Joseph GIANTS
Osborne, Mark Untitled Pink
Oshilaja, Damilola Landscape Redux; No-nVOID/26: IDARIKA, The Land & The Sky
Panchal, Shanti The Divide, Beyond Reasoning
Payne, Alistair
Payne, Steve
Pearce, David
Rejmer-Canovas, Gracjana Electric Landscape
Robertson, Joanne Raining on Shoebox Cove
Soni, Lucy
Talbot, Emma
Stewart, Bill
Thatcher, Clare Feature of Landscape
Verran, Virginia
Whittle, Joanna Rain Tent
Wills, Morgan
The names of the five prizewinning artists will be announced in July
Past prize winners include David Hockney (1967), Mary Martin (1969), Lisa Milroy (1989), Peter Doig (1993), Keith Coventry (2010) and Rose Wylie (2014). Sir Peter Blake, winner of the junior prize in 1961, is Patron of the Prize. The winner of the prestigious first prize in 2016 was Michael Simpson with his painting, Squint (19).
Five prizewinning paintings from the John Moores Painting Prize China will also be displayed in the 2018 exhibition. Organised by the College of Fine Arts at Shanghai University, the China Prize was launched in 2010 to support the development of painting in China.
The John Moores Painting Prize is organised in partnership with the John Moores Liverpool Exhibition Trust and is supported by its exhibition partner Weightmans. The exhibition is showing as part of Liverpool Biennial 2018, the largest festival of contemporary art in the UK taking place across the city’s public spaces, galleries and museums from 14 July to 28 October.
Visitors to the John Moores Painting Prize 2018 exhibition will also be able to see work by past prize winner Sean Scully in Sean Scully: 1970, a free exhibition that also opens on 14 July (until 18 November). Widely regarded as the master of post-minimalist abstraction, Scully was a prize winner in 1972 and again in 1974.
www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/
@JMPaintingPrize / #JM2018
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